Barclays is Late to The Party + Retention Bonus

Barclays sent me an email announcing an enhancement to my US Airways Barclays credit card.

The enhancement is the elimination of foreign transaction fees.

Foreign transaction fees are additional money that you have to pay for using your credit card to purchase items in a foreign currency. Typically, the foreign transaction fee is 3% or  $3 for every $100.

Eliminating this unnecessary fee is a true enhancement. The problem is that other credit card companies have already eliminated this fee on most cards. Barclays is late to game.

Retention Bonus 

Early this week, I tried to cancel my US Airways Mastercard. After being transferred to an Account Specialist, I explained that I wanted to cancel my card. After explaining that I am not using the card and the lack of spend bonuses, the account specialist offered to refund my annual fee $89 and give me 5,000 miles if I spend $1,000 in 90 days. The funny thing is I paid the annual fee in August.

I took the offer and kept the card open. $89 refund and the possibility to earn 5,000 miles easy was to much to offer.
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Saving Money On Upcoming Carlson' Mattress Run

Club Carlson currently has the best Quarter 1 Promotion.

Its a simply promotion: Stay 2 Nights earn 15,000 Gold Points bonus Points or earn 30,000 bonus Gold Points by staying 3 Nights.

You can register for the promotion here.

After the promotion came out, I booked a two night stay for $140.36.

Last night, I got an email saying that Club Carlson is having a last minute sale:

Book by Friday January 16th and save 15% on 2 night stays and 25% on 3 night stays in January. I checked the promotion out on the nights for my mattress run and saved $8.

Not to shabby...if you have stays at Club Carlson coming up on January, might want to check to see if you can save some money.
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Interesting Offer from Southwest

Southwest sent me an email with an interesting exclusive offer. For 100,000 points, I can travel to Florida to see the Baltimore Orioles at Spring Training.

The offer includes airfare, nights at Ritz- Carlton, tickets to the game and much more:

The package is very impressive especially 3 nights at The Ritz-Carolton Sarasota. There are 30 packages for purchase with points and 1 for auction.

Packages like these can sometimes be a waste of money. However, this one might be worth it for a Baltimore Orioles' fan.

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I Saved Almost 50% On My Car Rental By Doing Nothing

For years, I have heard about AutoSlash and its ability to save money on car rentals.

Up until a few month's ago, I had never tried AutoSlash. For those unaware of AutoSlash, its a rental car booking website similar to Orbitz. The difference between Orbitz and AutoSlash is that AutoSlash works to reduce the cost of your rental from the moment you book until your rental.

My first experience was good, but the savings was nothing to write about. However, for my upcoming trip to Charleston, I rented a car for 3 days with AutoSlash. The cost was just under $75.00.

A few days after, I received this email:

AutoSlash found a new rental for $40.42, a savings of $34.36. To get this savings, all I had to do was reply "Yes" to the email. Almost 50% savings with a simple "Yes" email.  Score!

If you need a car rental, give AutoSlash a try.
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Is $40 Worth Missing Out on 1,750 Points?

Over Martin Luther King Weekend, I am taking a little trip south. The sole purpose of the trip is to use my 2 free Hilton night certificates that were expiring from my Hilton Citi card.

My free night certificates cover the first 2 nights of the trip leaving me to pay 1 night out of pocket. The cost of the 3rd night is about $175. On Saturday and Sunday, the cost of the room was about $250 a night, not a bad use of the certificates. My dilemma is how to pay for the 3rd night at the hotel.

My choices are my JetBlue American Express and Citi Hilton Hhonors Reserve Card.

You may be wondering my JetBlue American Express card. Its an odd choice. American Express has a great promotion known as AMEX Sync, which offers cash off at particular merchants if you spend $Xs. One of my offers is $40 off if I spend $175 at a Doubletree.

Since my stay is at a DoubleTree, this is a great time to use this offer. The downside of using my JetBlue AMEX is that I won't earn HHonor points for the money put on the credit card.

On the other hand, if I use the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card, I will earn Hilton points on my credit card spend for the hotel night. With the Reserve card earns 10 points per $1 spent at the Hilton portfolio.

My $175 hotel room with earn me 1,750 points. However, by using my Reserve card, I lose out on the $40 savings from AMEX.

Therefore, I ask...$40 or 1,750 Hilton Honors points? Which one would you choose?
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Unwanted Gift = 500 Bonus Miles

RocketMiles is offering a weird bonus. Once of the weirdest bonus that I have ever seen.

Got unwanted gifts from the holidays? Rocketmiles will take one off your hands in exchange for 500 additional miles on your next stay.

The terms and condition state that you must mail the unwanted gift to the following address by January 15th:

                                    560 W. Washington Blvd - Suite 310, Chicago, IL 60661

I haven't used Rocketmiles before, but I am tempted to jump in on this promotion. This promotion is just crazy enough for me.

Have no idea who or what Rocketmiles does? I wrote about them here and they explain themselves here.

Grandmom's ugly sweater, Nephew's art project, Office Secret Santa, you may be headed to Chicago!

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Yes, I Paid For A Checked Bag

About 5 year ago, airlines were desperate to raise revenue in the face of fuel prices. In this desperation, some airline executive came up with the idea to start charging for the 1st checked bag. For decades, the 1st checked bag was included in the price of your ticket.

Since I have started flying more often, I have avoided paying for a checked bag. Either I flew an airline like Southwest Airlines that still does not charge for checking baggage, used an airline credit card to purchase my ticket that gave me a free bag or stuffed all my clothes into a carry-on bag. I was determined to do anything possible to avoid giving the airline more money.

Well last night, I finally lost and gave $25 to check a bag on my United flight. My family graciously gifted me tons of clothes and gear for my upcoming trip to Antarctica. These gifts made it difficult to travel home with a checked bag. I need these clothes in a few months time, so they needed to come home to DC with me.

My options of getting this gear to DC were limited:

• A few months ago, I cancelled my Chase United card eliminating my ability to get a free check bag. 
• I don't have elite status with United ie no free checked ag
• Southwest would have been free, but 3+ hour trip home after landing
• Sending by postal was not an ideal option. I dreaded finding a proper sized box, packing my stuff up, driving to the postal office, waiting in line at the post office, paying $X, waiting a week for my package to arrive at my office, and dragging it home after work one day.    

Therefore, United got $25 out of me. Sometimes, you just have to pay the man!


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My 2015 Wish For You

Last night, I had the privileged to be surrounded by family, as we saw our cousin marry her boyfriend of 10 years. The night was filled with food, we are Italian, dancing, again we are Italian, and lots of spirits. Around 12:30, while breakfast was being served, I wrote this message on my Facebook wall:

Wishing all my friends a family, a happy New Year! Make 2015 the year you reach for the stars. The only person holding you back is you. The first step is stating the goal out loud. The next step is making the decision to achieve the goal. It doesn't matter if you achieve the goal...it matters that you tried.

Next year, I am going to accomplish one of my biggest goals by visiting Antarctica. By doing so, I will have visited all 7 continents before turning 30. If you asked me 3 years ago if this was possible, I would say never. However, my goal is becoming reality. So, any goal you have can become reality as well....

Dream big in 2015, you be surprised by what you can accomplish...

Now half a day later, looking at this message, even with its grammar and spelling errors (I blame the open bar), its just as important: MAKE 2015 YOUR YEAR!

                                           

Somewhere in the past five years, Americans stopped dreaming. It could have been a direct result of the economic crisis with wallets being stretched thin. However, the economy is improving, so its time to put the nightmares to bed and start reaching for the stars.

As a travel focused blog, I hope your goals included travel. Have you ever wanted to go to Madagascar? Do you have a passport with no stamps? Do you have an aunt in Michigan that you have always wanted to visit? Well this is the year to start making these goals reality!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully in the next few weeks, I will talk about how to make your goals a reality. For now, use the next few days to dream . . .

Happy New Year! You have a new set of 365 days to make it even better than last......

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Is 2014 The Deadliest Year For Flights?

July was not a good month for the aviation industry. In one week, there was three crashes of airplanes with hundreds of casualties. Of course, people have started to question the safety of airlines. I think people questioning airline safety is good.

One question that has come up is if 2014 is on track to be the Deadliest Year for Flights?

CNN and the Airline Safety Network have the answer: not even close. According to their analysis, 1972 was the worst year for airline casualties (2429) with 1985 being a close second with 2331 casualties.

 
With 761 casualties this year, 2014 is not even close to the deadliest. Last year, "264 people were killed in flight incidents - the safest year in aviation since 1945"was

How about the most crashes? Again, 2014 doesn't even rank in the top 10.

With 55 crashes each, 1948 and 1972 have the most crashes. As of the end of July, there has been less than 20 crashes this year.

Personally, I feel airline travel has become much more safer. Recently, a family member asked me if I am sacred to fly. My response was no. I come from the belief system that if something is going to happen to me, I can't stop it.

I am going to live my life regardless of what happens....

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My 500 Bonus Miles Post

In June, I was offered a chance to earn 500 bonus MileagePlus miles for completing 2 partner offers. I completed my 2 partner offers within hours of receiving the email.

The following month, I was received a similar offer. This time I decided to pass on the offer due to difficulty of the partner offers.

Last week, I received the 500 points in my United Airlines account. Score!

I forgot about the offer, but was pleasantly happy they arrived.

Did you receive your points yet?

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When Would You Pay For An Upgrade?

In June, I went back to Connecticut for a family picnic. I booked a combination of tickets on JetBlue and US Airways.

The trip is about 70 minutes long via airplane from gate to gate. Both airlines sent me emails suggesting I pay to upgrade my seat.

                                                                 JetBlue

JetBlue sent me the following email asking me to upgrade to "Even More Space," for $10:

                                                               US Airways

US Airways sent the following email inviting me to pay $95 to upgrade to First Class. Or better yet, be added to the upgrade list:

The question I asked myself, does it make sense to upgrade for such a short flight?

The JetBlue flight was 1/2 full. I had 4 rows of seats to myself; therefore, the "early access to overhead bin space" was not necessary. Therefore, my $10 would have purchased me only more legroom. On the other hand, the US Airways flight was oversold. The 2 free check bags is enticing. However, I only needed to check 1 bag and I used my US Airways Mastercard to purchase my ticket getting that bag checked for free.

Therefore, would getting more foot space be worth paying $10 or $95?

For me, not really. I can suffer for 70 minutes in typically coach.

Would you pay for an upgrade on this route?

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Wedding Challenge: Starting Point

Last week, I announced a challenge to earn enough miles/points to pay for a upcoming west coast wedding.

As a reminder for the challenge to be a success, I need to earn the following miles/points:


     1)     25,000 United MileagePlus

     2)     45,000 Hyatt (Gold Points)

     3)     Enough points for $100 gift cards


To ensure openness, here are my current balances of my accounts:

United Airlines:

Hyatt GoldPoints:

MyPoints:

SwagBucks:

Ultimate Rewards:

With my starting balances laid out on the table, the hard part starts now. I need to start earning.

As a reminder, here are the rules;

• No new credit cards ie no points earned from new credit cards can be used

• Can't buy points

• Have to earn the points by end of 2014

• Can use Swagbucks and MyPoints

• Can't just transfer miles from Ultimate Rewards; have to earn them from today on to transfer

Let's get earning.

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What's In My Wallet

Every once and while, I like to share what credit cards are in my wallet.

Since I have not applied for any credit cards since January, the two credit cards in my wallet are my Barclay's US Airways Mastercard and the US Bank Club Carlson Visa.

The reason I choose these 2 cards is that, first, I need US Airways miles and Club Carlson points. After liquidating all my US Airways miles, I would like to start building up miles and Club Carlson points are always great to have.

The second reason is promotions. Both cards are offering bonus miles for using the credit cards in July and August:

• US Airways Promotion: 20% bonus on all miles earned between July 1 and August 31st

• Club Carlson Promotion: 1 bonus point per dollar spent between July 1 and August 31st

Neither promotion is earth shattering amazing, but something is better than nothing. Therefore, until further notice, I will be using these 2 credit cards.

What's in your wallet?
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Wedding Challenge

In your 20s and 30s, weddings seem to pop-up on a non-stop pace. Your friends from high school & college, your cousins and co-works are all starting to walk down the aisle for the first or second time.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

Attending weddings is not cheap; especially, if you have to travel to the wedding. The costs of attending a wedding away from your where you live add up: airfare, hotel, rental car, food, booze, gifts etc. The cost only increases if you are a member of the wedding party. Last year, I wrote about Christopher Sledzik, "who racked up $10,000 in debt by attending 12 different weddings and being of 3 different wedding parties over an 18 month period."

10,000 Gs of debt from weddings. That's ridiculous. However, I can see how you can rack up debt by attending weddings. Its difficult to say no to a friend's wedding invitations. Your friends are getting married, your other friends will be there, and it you know its going to be an awesome time.  But I wonder is there a better way to reduce travel costs to weddings?

For this reason, I am coming up with The Wedding Challenge.

The goal of the challenge is to earn enough miles/points to pay for the airfare, hotel nights and a $100 gift for an upcoming wedding. Let's assume the following things:

• Wedding is located on the West Coast i.e. requires air travel

• 3 hotel nights 

• $100 gift - which I feel like is average wedding gift

Like all of my challenges, there are rules:

• No new credit cards ie no points earned from new credit cards can be used

• Can't buy points

• Have to earn the points by end of 2014

• Can use Swagbucks and MyPoints

• Can't just transfer miles from Ultimate Rewards; have to earn them from today on to transfer

Success on this challenge will be achieve by hitting the following milestones:

      1)  25,000 United MileagePlus 

      2)  45,000 Hyatt (Gold Points) - 15,000 a night or $200 worth of Hyatt GCs

      3)  Enough points (most likely from Swagbucks or MyPoints) for a $100 gift card to 

           some department store

My goal of this challenge is to show people that attending a wedding for cheap is possible not that I am cheap. For my friends and family, I would travel the world to celebrate their nuptials. However, the cost of attending weddings is one of the main reasons why people can't attend. 

Do you have a wedding you need to travel to in 2015? Join my Wedding Challeneg to see if you can reduce the cost of attending by earning miles & points.

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Another Dining Rewards Offer

In the past two weeks, my inbox has been inundated by bonus point offers from Dining Rewards .

I have received offers from United, Hilton and IHG. I was a little shocked that I had not received one from US Airways. They were the first Dining Rewards program that I signed up for.

Less than 24 hours after uttering those words, a Dinning Rewards offer from US Airways came in.

Compared to other offers, this one isn't sexy. No major bonus miles/points to be earned. 

The offer is double miles for all dines in the month of July. Why might this offer be good for you? It doesn't require a large commitment of x amount of dines. You can dine as you normally would.

The bigger question: why all the bonuses from Dining Rewards? Are they looking to be bought?

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After the Wedding Comes The Honeymoon

Summer is the height of wedding season. Luckily for me, I have no weddings this year. However, next year is a different story.

Photo Credit: http://www.onscreenweddings.com

As a traveler, I am excited about where the couple is headed for their honeymoon more than the wedding. For many couples, their honeymoon is the first time they travel outside the United States. Its an exciting time for the new couple. Add in a foreign location and the experiences to be had a numerous.

A survey by Hipmunk and Yahoo, revels that Fiji, Italy, Hawaii, New Zealand and Greece are the top Honeymoon Destinations. No real surprises there.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

What I like about the survey is that Disneyland, Mexico and California are the "least ideal honeymoon destinations." I had a college friend have here honeymoon at Disneyland, but the couple were major "Disney geeks." There description of themselves, not mine.

The survey reveled that 70% of men were more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding compared to 36% of women.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

Almost all couples would spend less on the wedding for a fancier honeymoon.

(Graphic: Jinah Kim)

This is where points and miles can help. Typically, weddings/honeymoons are planned a year or more in advance. A few strategic credit card applications by your fiance and you, can result in a significant portion of your honeymoon being paid for.

For instance, the Hyatt credit card offers 2 free nights worldwide. If both your fiance and you apply for the Hyatt credit cards separately, you can earn 4 free nights. For many couples, 4 nights is almost the entire honeymoon. Add in an airline credit card or 2, you could help reduce or eliminate the cost of the airfare to the honeymoon destination.

How will you hit the minimum spend on the credit card to earn the bonus miles?

Don't you have expenses for the wedding. Probably lots of expenses!

Parents paying for the wedding?

Ask them to allow you to put the charges on your credit card and give you a check. If you tell them its to help pay for the honeymoon, they might be more willing to help out twice!

A small amount of planning can result in significant savings on your honeymoon.

If you are married, do you wish you could have taken a fancier honeymoon?

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Another 500 Mile Bonus Offer from United Airlines (Targeted)

United Airlines is back with another chance to earn 500 bonus miles.

To earn the bonus miles, you have must complete two different offers from four partners by July 31st:

The partner offers are as followed:

1) Make one stay at a Hyatt Hotel and credit the stay to MileagePlus

2) Make one stay at any Hilton Hotel and credit the stay to MileagePlus

3) Use SuperShuttle and have miles credited to MileagePlus

4) Rent a car from Avis and have miles credited to MileagePlus


This is the second month that United has made this type of offer. Last months' offer was much easier than this one: complete a dine at a restaurant and survey and bank 500 miles.  This offer requires some type of planned travel.

Personally, I am going to pass on this one. I am not really traveling this month and 500 miles isn't worth spending money for no reason.

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Dining Rewards Summer Bonus (TARGETED)

Yesterday, I got an interesting offer from United Dining Rewards.

Yes, 10,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles for 10 dines before August 15. After registering for the promotion, I learned that for a dine to count, I must spend $40+.

Since I earn 3 miles per $1 spent normally with Dining Rewards, I will earn at least an additional 1,200 miles though this promotion.

                     3 x $40 = 120 miles   -  120 miles x 10 Dines = 1,200 additional miles

Will I participate?

I don't know. 11,000 miles is alot of miles to earn from a promotion, but require me spend at least $400. If I had a few client lunches or dinners, I could swing buying gift certificates to get to the 10 dines. But as a single guy, spending $40 on meals is not easy.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions to make.

Other Offers

I received another offer from Hilton HHoners Dinning Rewards. Unlike the United offer, this one was stingy.

2,500 bonus Hilton HHonors points after 10 dines of $40+ more.

If I am going to do 10 dines, its going to be for 10,000 United Miles not 2,500 HHonor Points. 

The decision between the two offers is a no brainier! Spending $400 for 10,000+ miles is not so easy.

Would you DO IT FOR THE POINTS?

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